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September 12, 2013

Atlanta Capital Rolls Up Small Family Office Firms

Merger allows firm to focus on $5 million to $20 million accounts

Atlanta Capital Group announced Wednesday that it had surpassed $1 billion in assets under advisement with the merger of neighboring PFM Capital Holdings, a private family office based in the Peach State. This is the eleventh such deal for Atlanta Capital, whose East Coast presence stretches from Massachusetts to Georgia.

With this merger, Atlanta Capital Group claims it is ahead of what it sees as a national trend of family offices, traditionally reserved for the ultrawealthy, now serving clients with assets under $100 million.

“Our sweet spot is that $5 million to $20 million range,” says Jeff Shaver (left), founding principal partner at Atlanta Capital. “Goldman Sachs doesn’t want the $5 million accounts, to tell you the truth. But we’re scalable, and can service clients of that size.”

He cites the Family Wealth Alliance in noting there are more than 100,000 families with between $5 million and $20 million in the United States. Atlanta Capital Group aims to offer a higher level of service to these high-net-worth families, including investment advice, financial planning, family governance, planned giving, and administrative work, according to Shaver.

“We’ve known of Bob Atkinson for a long time,” he adds, referring to Robert Atkinson, founder of PFM Capital Holdings, when explaining the genesis of the merger. “A number of companies were going after his business, but because we knew the nature of his firm and had these discussions before, it was a great fit."

Atkinson founded PFM Capital Management in 1992 to meet the comprehensive financial needs of high-net-worth individuals and families, corporate executives and family-owned businesses. The decision to merge with Atlanta Capital Group was done in the interest of his clients, he says. Atkinson is now a Managing Partner with Atlanta Capital Group.

Atlanta Capital Group was founded10 years ago by David Millican, Shaver and Jody Young with $82 million in assets. It was named an Emerging RIA by Forbes Magazine.